March 16, 2017 — MedyMatch Technology announced a collaboration with IBM Watson Health to bring MedyMatch’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based clinical decision support application to imaging experts working in hospital emergency rooms and other acute care settings. In this application, the technology can help doctors identify instances of intracranial bleeding as a result of head trauma and stroke.

According to the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA), stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and one of the top causes of preventable disability in the United States. Affecting 4 percent of U.S. adults, it is forecasted that by 2030, there will be approximately 3.4 million stroke victims annually in the U.S., costing the healthcare system $240 billion on an annual basis.

MedyMatch aims to bring cognitive tools into the daily workflow of an emergency department to help physicians assess patients suspected of head trauma or stroke, and rule out the presence of a bleed in the brain. The MedyMatch algorithm uses sophisticated deep learning, machine vision, patient data and clinical insights to automatically highlight for a physician regions of interest that could indicate the potential presence of cerebral bleeds — and does so without interrupting how a physician works.

“The implementation of AI-based computer-aided detection and clinical decision support tools to medicine in general, and to the emergency department in particular, has the potential to increase the speed, accuracy and efficiency of patient management – with the potential to ultimately reduce diagnostic errors and improving clinical outcomes,” said Michael Lev, M.D., director of emergency radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. “MedyMatch is ideally positioned to leverage this technology, and their willingness to collaborate with industry partners reflects their awareness of, and sensitivity to, the complexities of patient assessment in the acute care setting. The company’s first algorithms — CT [computed tomography] detection of intracranial bleeds — represents the confluence of physician know-how and artificial intelligence clinical support.”

MedyMatch is currently conducting a clinical trial for its intracranial bleed assessment application and is working towards a PMA (premarket approval) Class III approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).